The next chapter is up! Enjoy :)
When Galen came to, he awoke with a splitting headache.
He slowly sat up with a pained grunt, his hand going to the right side of his temples. When his fingers skimmed a small, scabbed over bump, he flinched.
'Noelle!' He remembered.
Galen quickly stood up. Which wasn't the best idea because he nearly fell over again from moving so fast with a head wound.
He wouldn't be surprised if he had a concussion from that tumble. Still, he needed to find Noelle. His eyes shifted to the other hill he saw the gorillas on horseback go up.
It was still dark, so, hopefully he wasn't out for too long.
Now, he had to travel back up the steep hill he fell down to get to the horse back up top. Then carefully get her down the steep hill so they can go up the same narrow path on the other hill that the gorillas went.
Galen turned around and started up the steep hill. He made sure to lean forward and bend his knees as he went so, he won't lose his balance and fall again.
It took him several minutes to get up the steep incline, he nearly lost his footing a couple times on the steep gravel on the way up.
The only thing currently going through his mind right now was getting to Noelle. He hopes he can find her. He was worried, because he still didn't know this district well.
He didn't want to even think about the thought that she could be anywhere by now.
Galen tried to push those thoughts out of his mind though. He will find her, no matter how long it takes. At least he knew that the gorillas went up that other hill before he fell down the hill he was on.
He got to the horse, who thankfully, was still where he left her.
Galen grabbed the reins. Though instead of mounting the horse, he started to carefully lead her down the steep hill. Lola was a bit hesitant at first. Seeing as after taking a couple steps she nearly slipped.
Not even five feet down, she stopped and started to fuss.
"C'mon, Lola. We have to go down. We have to find Noelle." He said.
Though he felt kind of dumb right now, talking to a horse.
Upon hearing Noelle's name though, Lola did perk up and started moving again. She started following Galen once more down the steep hill.
It took them a few minutes to make it down. Both the chimp and horse nearly slipped a few times and had to brace themselves. But eventually, they made it all the way to the bottom, unscathed.
Once they were on level ground again, Galen mounted the mare and led her in a trot to the boulders to the right.
They got there within a couple minutes and rounded them to the very shallow stream. He then took the horse across the shallow stream which barely made it halfway up her lower legs.
Within another few minutes they made it across and stopped right before the hill that the gorillas took.
Galen reached down into Noelle's pack and fished out her iPhone. He fumbled with it for a moment before tapping the round button on the bottom. Then watched as the screen lit up.
He saw her do this at least twice, activate what she called a flashlight setting on the phone once.
While she didn't explain to him how it worked, he did observe her closely utilize it in the dark before. He remembered she touched the bottom of the screen and swiped up.
When she did this, some symbols came sliding up then he watched her tap this odd shape one that turned a tiny light on, on the back of the phone.
He swiped it a couple times and was able to finally pull it up on the third swipe of his finger. He found the weird symbol he was looking for and tapped it.
Not a moment later, the light came on.
Galen pointed the light in front of him to the hill. He found the narrow path with the light rather quickly. The dirt path dug into the hill, and he could see multiple sets of hoofprints that were left behind by the horses the gorillas were on.
He tapped the symbol again, turning off the light then slid it into a small side pouch around his waist band.
Then he lightly kicked the horse's sides and had her moving. Galen started up the narrow path. Thankfully, this hill wasn't nearly as steep nor had slippery rocks or gravel.
So, the horse had no trouble making her way up it.
They made it up the hill in only three minutes until they were on even ground once more. The path was clear in front of Galen, and it went straight ahead.
The area this way was rather bare and had sparse clusters of trees here and there from what he can tell.
Galen took out the iPhone one more time and activated the flashlight setting and pointed it down and ahead. He could still make out the tracks of the horses in the ground and they were all going straight ahead of him.
He turned off the light, pocketed the phone once more. Then with a flick of the reins he had Lola galloping ahead.
With Noelle...
She is unsure how long they were riding when they finally seemed to start slowing down. It was still dark, so she doesn't believe they were riding that long.
It didn't seem like they made any turns anywhere either, it was just a straight run down this somewhat narrow path through the sparse woods.
Eventually, they came to this clearing.
By the looks of it, it looked like some kind of outpost. There were a lot of torches lit all around. Though not many people were out and about, probably because it was rather late.
Though she did see some more gorillas walking about the place and they seemed to be armed.
They entered the area where they were met by at least a couple of these gorillas. Then the ones she was with started to dismount from their horses.
One of them came over to the horse she was currently sharing with one of the gorillas.
The one she was with grabbed her around the sides and started to lower her down for the other gorilla to take before he too dismounted. They then started to lead her away.
Noelle still struggled a bit though, digging her heels into the ground and twisting her upper half around.
It was difficult to try and break free though when your hands are tightly bound behind your back. They also had a firm hold on each bicep on either side of her.
"Goddammit! Let me go you fucking assholes!" She yelled, still thrashing about, not wanting to make it easy for them.
"Shut up, female!" One of them barked impatiently.
"Fuck you, you ugly ass motherfucker!" She yelled at him.
Having enough of her thrashing about and her mouth, one of the gorilla's looked over at one of their comrades.
"Tova! Get over here and silence her!" He barked.
The gorilla known as Tova pulled his rifle off his shoulder as he came walking over.
When he got there, he lifted it up and quickly slammed the butt of his rifle into the back of Noelle's head, effectively knocking her out. She went limp right away and was out.
Then they proceeded to drag her the rest of the way to the holding cage where there was a tiny handful of some other human women.
Devo unlocked the door to the cage and the other two tossed an unconscious Noelle in before retreating and slamming the door shut before locking it once more.
A pained moan left her as she hit the ground.
Then Noelle became aware of a few hands on her. They started to carefully pull her up and helped her to sit. She sat there with a grimace, rubbing the back of the head where she was hit.
"Are you ok? You probably shouldn't have made them mad like that." A female voice from above her and off to the side said.
Noelle looked up and saw at least four other young human women surrounding her and looking down at her.
"I'm good. But...where the hell are we?" Noelle asked.
They all had sad looks upon their faces.
"We were all kidnapped from our villages by these gorillas and taken here. They...mean to sell us to buyers." One of the blond girls said.
A couple of them had tears in their eyes as these words left the woman's mouth.
Noelle's eyes widened, "So, they are traffickers then."
The blond nodded, "Yes, unfortunately. And they sadly have been doing this for a while. Rumors spread how some young women between the ages of seventeen and thirty-seven have gone missing. Only to have never returned.
Some witnesses claimed they saw from afar how they saw a group of gorillas come in and surround a lone woman here and there while she is either out washing some clothes in a nearby river or gathering wild grown fruits and vegetables and taking them away."
"They're pretty smart too, they wait until no one is either around or too far away to help. That's when they come in and grab you." Another girl said.
"I'm sorry." Noelle said, with a solemn look.
Most of these women were quite young. Three of them looked to be much younger than her. Except for the one blond one who first started talking to her. She looked to be more around Noelle's age.
"What are your names?" Noelle asked.
"I am Noomi." Said the older blond.
"Marielle." The brunette said.
"I'm Lenna." The other blond replied.
"Cecily." Said the last girl.
She seemed to be the timidest of the group and possibly the youngest. Couldn't be more than seventeen years old if Noelle had to guess. She had reddish brown hair.
Each of the girls here would be considered rather pretty.
"Nice to meet you all. I'm Noelle." She says.
"So, what village they take you from?" Marielle asks.
Noelle was silent for a moment, before speaking.
"I wasn't in a village. I was travelling with my uhh...master and they nabbed me when I went to go fill the waterskins in a stream down below from the road we were on." She explained.
With a couple of them, their eyes widened.
"You mean to say they took you from another ape? Can't say I heard that happen before. Usually, they take women who weren't already under servitude to an ape." Lenna stated.
"It just proves, they are just getting bolder." Noomi stated grimly.
Noelle got up from the ground and started looking around the cage. She stopped by the door and grasped the chain and lock and started inspecting it.
"What are you doing?" Marielle asks.
"Trying to see if I can find a way to open this door." Noelle said.
The four women shared looks with one another.
Apparently, they thought this new girl was very bold and brazen. Not to mention fiery since they saw how hard she fought against her captors on the way here.
Noomi then approached her.
"Noelle, you need to stop, that guard over there is staring." Noomi warned her with a slight gesture and tilt of her head in her direction to the right of them.
Noelle followed her gaze and saw an armed gorilla standing not ten feet from the cage, glaring at her.
She gave him a dirty look back, before backing away and went back to the group of girls.
"There has to be a way for us to get out of here." Noelle said.
"How? Even if we did somehow get out of this cage, we'd be shot." Lenna told her.
Noelle was silent for a moment.
"Still, there has to be a way. I refuse to wait around in this cage, waiting to be sold off to some sick bastard. We're not property. We are human beings, we may not have many rights, but we do have some rights here. They cannot do this." Noelle declared.
"We agree, and kidnapping humans is frowned upon and against the law. But none of the authorities have been able to find this outpost. As we mentioned before, these gorillas are smart. They don't stay in one place for long. They move their post around to cover their tracks. So, they can avoid being caught by the police." Noomi said.
Noelle shifted her gaze around to the four young women.
"Just how long have you all been captive here?" She inquired.
"I was the first captured of this group. I've been here for about four days now." Marielle said.
"Three days." Lenna replied.
"Same, three days." Noomi added.
"Two days." Cecily muttered, while looking down at the ground.
"And have they moved the post since any of you been here?" Noelle asks.
"Yes, on the day Lenna and I were brought in, they moved at least once." Noomi confirmed.
Noelle nodded, even now, she was still trying to think of a way for them to get out of here.
Meanwhile with Galen...
He continued riding on. Every now and then he'd whip out the phone from his side pouch to activate the flashlight to see if he was still going the right way and if he can still see their tracks.
So far, they haven't appeared to make any turns and were still going straight.
Galen had been riding for a couple hours now. He can only hope he was getting closer to Noelle's position. He also hopes they haven't hurt her.
'I'm coming, Noelle. Just hold on!' He thought, as he raced down the path.
Another fifteen minutes went by, when he started to see light up ahead coming from the right. Whatever or whoever it was, they were moving.
Galen pushed Lola to go faster as he raced down the path closer to what appeared to be a few lit torches.
He pushed the horse to go faster, because he didn't want to miss whoever it was. They were headed straight to the road he was on. Meaning there must be another road up there on the right they were coming from.
Galen didn't know the mare could move so fast. She was practically flying down the dirt road at breakneck speed.
Just as the torches made it to the road he was on, he was meeting them there. He actually had to pull back on the reins to keep himself from running into them.
The ones in question, were gorillas. Decked out in police attire.
They came to a stop, when they saw a chimp on horseback come to an abrupt stop not ten feet away from them.
"Sir, what are you doing out this late?" One of them asked.
"Please, I need help. This group of gorillas came and stole my servant when she went to fill the waterskins." Galen told them.
The troop of gorilla guards all exchanged looks with each other. While the leader, who was wearing a Lieutenant vest studied the chimp.
"You saw them?" The Lieutenant asked.
"Yes, there was at least four or five of them on horseback. They must've surrounded her. Because when I left the road upon hearing her cries, I saw them riding off with her in the saddle." Galen explained.
The Lieutenant was silent for a moment.
"We have been looking for these traffickers for a while now. Since several human females started going missing. The latest one, a young girl was taken only a couple days ago.
This puts us at the thirteenth one taken within the last couple months. Because of this, we are out here searching for the ones who have taken them.
We haven't had much luck in finding them though. This is our first time taking this path and checking it to see if we can find any signs of them." The Lieutenant explained.
"I believe they have gone this way, there are tracks on the ground here that are rather fresh, I've been doing my best to follow them." Galen replied.
At least one of the gorillas shined a torch over the road.
"Sir, I do see what looks like relatively fresh tracks from multiple horses here." One of the guards informed the Lieutenant.
The Lieutenant looked down at the road, and he too saw disturbed dirt in the earth that didn't look very old.
"We follow them then." The Lieutenant said.
He then shifted his gaze to Galen.
"Thank you for your input. Hopefully, we can find your servant with the recent group of missing girls." He told the chimp.
"Let's go then." Galen said.
Then with a flick of the reins, he was off.
The Lieutenant thought it a little odd that this chimp was as adamant as he was to get to his servant. But shrugged it off and informed his men to follow the trail.
Galen felt lucky and relieved to have stumbled upon the authorities. Even more so that he was able to give them a lead and now they were all following the tracks of these traffickers.
He was a bit more optimistic that they will find Noelle and possibly these missing women now, with more reinforcements. Especially, since they clearly knew this district better than he did.
Back with Noelle...
She was pacing around a little, still trying to come up with a solid plan.
If it just involved her, then she may have come up with something by now. But she had at least four other people to think about now. She needed a plan that will get them all safely out.
Noelle was deep in thought, when she heard the faint sound of a horse nearby.
She shifted her gaze in that direction and saw one lone horse a few yards away. It was currently connected to a cart. As she stared at it, some ideas started coming to mind.
Then her gaze shifted to the women.
Lenna and Cecily had fallen asleep not long ago. But Noomi and Marielle were still awake and quietly talking with one another. Noelle quietly made her way over to the two awake women and she sat down next to them.
"Hey, by any chance does anyone here know how to ride a horse or drive a cart?" She asks.
Noomi didn't say anything. But Marielle was the one to speak up.
"My ape friend Nyla has been teaching me how to ride. Why?" Marielle asks.
"See that cart over there?" Noelle asks her quietly.
Marielle followed her gaze and saw the cart several yards away from the cage.
"Yeah, what about it?" She asks.
"If I can get that guard to come in here and distract him, and knock him out, can you and the others make a run for that cart, and can you drive it out of here?" Noelle inquires.
While it seemed like a good idea. The two women wondered how Noelle will be able to distract this guard and knock him out. It sounded crazy to them because how will she be able to do so?
"I can most likely drive the cart. But...how can you possibly knock out the guard?" Marielle asks.
"Not to mention, he's not the only one out and about out here. There are others out here milling about the outpost. There's no guarantee that they won't spot us running and shoot us." Noomi told her.
Noelle was silent for a moment.
"But...will they really shoot us? They went through great lengths to obtain us so they can sell us to buyers. Would they really go through all that trouble to shoot something as valuable as us?" Noelle inquired.
Noomi and Marielle thought about it. They knew what Noelle said had a point to an extent. But at the same time, they knew they can always just get some new girls to replace them.
Yet, at the same time, they were conflicted. They all wanted to go back home. They all came from families that are probably going out of their minds wondering what happened to them.
In the end, it all came down to if they should attempt an escape and die trying or just wait to be bought off by some buyer and live their life in servitude and misery, never to see their families again?
It was a huge a risk. In the end, the question was, if they were willing to take it?
"What do you need us to do?" Noomi asks.
She was eager to get back to her husband and two children, if possible.
Noelle grinned and leaned in, she started to explain to them the idea she had.
She had been watching them for a while now. She had noticed when there were very few guards idling about the premises. All she had to do was wait until there were barely any around.
She likes to think, one gorilla guard will be easier to handle than several with her fighting skills.
Once the guard was knocked out, only then they can make their move. It was just a matter of time now. There were a couple of other guards milling about the large outpost.
But they weren't always in the same area.
Noelle needed to make a move when they least expect it. Luckily, she would be doing most of the work at first for this plan. It was up to the other four to make a break for that cart so they can make a getaway in it.
Though they need to do so as quietly as they can. So, not to alert the other gorillas out on watch.
They would have to be as quiet as they can, in getting the cart to the road. Then once they were there, they can high tail it out of there and bring everyone back home.
The only thing that irked Noelle, is she wanted to also find a way to stop these pricks as well, from taking other women and getting them caught by the authorities.
The problem was, she just didn't know how to go about that.
But first and foremost, she knew she had to get the girls here and herself out of here safely. Then she can only hope to find Galen again. She really hopes he is alright. That fall he took was a nasty one and she really didn't want to think the worst.
'No! Galen is ok! He's still alive!' Her mind screamed.
She just needed to find her way back to him.
What she didn't know, was that Galen and the authorities of that district were closing in on the traffickers. It was only a matter of time before they got there.
Until Next Time ;)